Industrial Revolution, Socialism and Communism

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Transcript of Industrial Revolution, Socialism and Communism

What is Socialism ? The technical definition of Socialism is, a political theory or system in which the means of production and distribution are controlled by the people and operated according to equity and fairness rather than market principles, in other word's it's a form of government where the people live without any private property and they don't follow any rules of capitalism. What is Communism ? Communism is basically, where the government owns everything, the land, the wealth, and they decide how people should live like where they should live and what job they should have. This form of government is being done in Russia and China even in modern times. Who started Socialism/ Communism ? Back in the early 1700's, three men were considered the founders of Socialism, three men , named Pierre Leroux, Marie Roch Louis Reybaud and Robert Owen.Communism has no clear point of origin, but the first evidence of communism was in Russia and began to expand throughout the east until in the 1850's it tried to get into America. When did Socialism begin ? Socialism first began in France after the French Revolution (1789-1799), their thought of socialism was the idea that democracy and freedom require a society of equality.But in England, there was one known socialist, cotton manufacturer Robert Owen. Like most of the early socialists drawn from the capitalist class, Owen did not call for a mass, democratic restructuring of society. For Owen, the working class was a pathetic and pitiful group. Owen's socialism was based on appealing to wealthy leaders of business and government in order to persuade them to improve the wretched conditions of the labouring masses. When did Communism begin ? As mentioned before, there is no clear point of origin to communism, but in theory and ideas of Communism were developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the 19th century. The first government established on those principals was that of Russia under Vladimir Lenin in October of 1917. Marx developed Marxism with the help of Engels. Communism, the idea that goods should be held by the collective (community) rather than individuals, has been around a lot longer. traditionally even British culture was more communal than it is now. There were lots of struggles when the common (last remaining commonly owned land) was gotten rid of. Groups like the Diggers protested in 1649. Many native cultures in North America got so ripped off because the idea of the land belonging to anyone was so foreign to them that they didn't understand it and it got taken by Europeans. Why was Socialism formed ? Though Socialism has had some success in the past it had it's fair share of failure for example. Socialism is the 20th century's greatest tragedy. Although its evangelists promised equality, prosperity and security, it was only responsible for misery, poverty, and absolutely 100% of the time ended up in tyranny. Actually, it is interesting to note that socialism in the 20th century did achieve a form of equality after all, but only in the form that all people in socialist countries were equal in their misery and poverty. Having spent considerable amounts of time in actively socialist countries, I have seen the anguish of its proletariat with my own eyes... although I never thought that I would live to see the Kremlin lecture Washington on the dangers of socialism. Why was Communism formed ? There is quite possibly no more reviled word in American society today than Communism. This is the result of over fifty years of Cold War propaganda. The subject of Communism, Marxism, and how these ideologies have affected history and apply to modern society are overwhelmingly complex. Perhaps this is one reason that these subjects have been largely ignored in America, but there are other reasons as well. Marxist Communism has been the one of the most influential ideological developments of the past 200 years, yet very few Americans actually know anything about Communist ideology. Americans do have many misconceptions about Communism however, which have been intentionally promoted by American leadership. I say influential for a reason, because the 20th century was largely defined by the struggle between capitalism and communism. Communism is so influential because even capitalist countries like America were defined in the 20th century by their anti-Communist policies, and because communism was a critical factor in the development of the climate that led to World War II, as fascism itself developed in opposition to communism.